When the first two songs of your first album are named after Black Sabbath records, you know you’re a fan. Washington-based Golden Pig Electric Blues Band may have covered The Beatles on their 2003 self-titled debut, but their riffs were almost exclusively Iommi, and you could even hear it in the pan-left/pan-right dueling guitar solos on “Freedog,” never mind the shuffling groove. These are some dudes who know what they like.

The illustrious Randall Dunn (SunnO))), Master Musicians of Bukkake, etc.) produced most of the first record, but the live track at the end, was captured in Port Orchard by none other than Tony Reed, who’d also go on to record, mix and master the trio’s second outing, 2006’s Hitchhiking to Oblivion (released on Heavy Hermit Records). Reed, bassist Eric Seipp and guitarist/vocalist Joe White trace a common lineage back to mid-’90s death metal outfit Woodrot, and in some of the warmth of bass on Hitchhiking to Oblivion tracks like “The Longhair,” one can hear the roots of Stone Axe starting to coalesce.

Golden Pig Electric Blues Band were their own entity however, and at times they were surprisingly heavy. The cover of “Tomorrow Never Knows” (I can’t imagine a scenario in which they didn’t know that Trouble already did the song, so call it a double-tribute if you want) from the first album and the “Electric Funeral”-ized “Apehanger Messiah” from the second are both sharpened with a metal edge, and while sometimes the vocals of White and drummer Jerome Seipp are laid back and dry enough to remind me of Against Nature‘s ultra-chill modus, the tones are heavier and Jerome hits hard on the drums even behind a boogie rocker like “Vol. 4” or the harmonica-infused blues number “The Basilisk.”

To the best of my knowledge, the band was last heard from on Small Stone‘s 2009 digital-only Northwest Mind Meld compilation, put together by Van Conner (VALIS/Screaming Trees). Their two tracks included there were highlights (review here), but Eric and Joe both play in the Sabbath tribute band Luke’s Wall (Reed‘s in there as well), and as Woodrot came out of their retirement for some shows at the end of the last decade, it’s pretty clear that when it comes to these guys, nothing is quite ever off the table. As I was recently fortunate enough to have both the Golden Pig Electric Blues Band records come into my possession, I figured I’d pass along the recommendation for anyone else who finds themselves in the position of perpetually having room in their heart for sincere, tonally rich Sabbath worship. Consider this that recommendation, and check out “Mizz Marvel” from the first record below:

Here I’ve been kicking myself for days trying to come up with some kind of vaguely apt descriptor for what’s going on with Small Stone‘s new Northwest Mind Meld release, and it’s right there in the title the whole time. Is it a compilation? Is it a six-way split? Nope, it’s a melding of the minds; a coming together of various acts and outfits linked in one way or another — if nothing else by geography — for a singular rocking purpose. A putting together of the heads, so to speak.

Gathered by none other than VALIS guitarist/vocalist Van Conner, Northwest Mind Meld features not only his band, but other Washington luminaries Mos Generator and Golden Pig Electric Blues Band alongside newcomers like Skullbot, The Valley (a name I can appreciate) and All Time High. Each band gets two tracks divided up over the course of the CD in a mixed order, like a compilation where half the bands didn’t show up and the rest just filled in the time.

One has to wonder about that. For a region so fertile when it comes to creative music — stoner or otherwise — it seems a little strange to only have a half-dozen bands melding their minds. Was this all Conner could find, or was it just a matter of who he thought fit with what the others were doing? In any case, the six present and accounted for each give solid showings, the two VALIS and Mos Generator cuts being particular highlights, as well as Golden Pig Electric Blues Band‘s “Pentagram” living up to its name.

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